Fiction @skryl.org

Forgotten

It was 3am. I woke up thinking of her. I had no idea who she was but her presence was overwhelming. Like a black hole in my subconscious she tore away the foundations of any structured thought. All effort to escape her grasp was futile and ended in a constellation of unfamiliar memories. Her voice, her scent, her face… a dizzying deja vu of someone I have never met. The ring of the telephone broke through the silence. Stumbling out of bed I reached for the handset. “Come over”, she said in a calm, stern voice. I remained mute, unable to shake the fog and confusion of the persistent dream. She hung up.

I waited in anticipation, still dazed by the slew of unfamiliar memories running through my mind. The leafs began to stir as she came into view. Her dark hair fell down to her shoulders where a black dress was struggling to hold on to her slender body. As she walked, the wind played with her hair and her dress waved in desperation. She resonated with the darkness. She was gorgeous.

“Drive,” she said, as she slid into the back seat. I obeyed. I didn’t know the way but I felt a strange sense of familiarity guiding me. It was as though threads of memory were being pulled out of some cerebral abyss and weaved back into my consciousness. With every turn she resurrected a part of me which I had long forgotten, piecing together a life I never knew I had. The picture continued to grow clearer, until I could finally make out our destination.

She was gone. I stood in the middle of a forested road, staring at a tall pine tree which lay across both lanes. I remembered sitting on my knees next to that same tree, soaking wet, holding her head as she took quick shallow breaths. Her face was covered in lacerations, glass shards protruding from her porcelain skin, draining her of life. I couldn’t stop the bleeding but I did my best to slow it down. Leaving her side to search for the phone meant a quick death, not searching for it meant certain death.

They said she would be OK… She died on the way to the hospital. They said my memory would come back within a few weeks… It has been five years. They tried to convince me of who I was… I didn’t believe them.

I stepped over the fallen tree. The road ahead was dark, but having her by my side again gave me the courage to move on.

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